When you finish studying this chapter, you should be able to:
- Distinguish between subject-centered curricula and student-centered curricula.
- Analyze how the emphasis on tougher academic standards relates to the larger
pattern of the subject-centered curriculum.
- Identify curriculum development efforts and influences at the national,
state, and local levels.
- Identify and analyze characteristics and effects of several instructional
approaches that have emerged within the last forty to fifty years.
- Identify emerging trends in curriculum and analyze their likely effects
on education.
Focus and Refocus Questions:
When you finish studying this chapter, you should be able to answer the following
questions from your textbook:
Focus Questions
- How does curriculum content reflect changes in society?
- What are some of the ways in which curriculum is organized?
- How might the use of cooperative learning or mastery learning influence
your work as a teacher?
- How can computers and other electronic resources be used in the classroom
to improve instruction?
- What are some trends that seem likely to affect curriculum and instruction
in the future?
Refocus Questions
- One of the questions at the beginning of the chapter asked you to focus
on how curriculum content reflects changes in society. Which societal changes
do you believe have been most important in driving curriculum emphases? In
your opinion, which social changes should be most important? Why?
- How will you, as a teacher, respond if you feel pressured to censor materials
or to follow a textbook-defined curriculum?
- Which of the instructional methods listed in this section (individualized
instruction, cooperative learning, mastery instruction, critical thinking,
and various methods of electronic instruction) do you feel most comfortable
with as a teacher? Why? How can you prepare to make effective use of methods
you are not comfortable with yet?
- Which of the trends listed here do you believe will have the strongest influence
on your career as a teacher? Why? In what ways will you be affected?
